NASA Despite the challenges posed worldwide by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been a bumper year when it comes to space exploration, marked by some incredible firsts and some sad farewells. It was a year of remarkable emerging technologies, a line up of ambitious new interplanetary missions, industry firsts, and the reemergence of the US in the field of human spaceflight. Most of all, 2020 saw commercial space companies coming into their own in ways that could impact space travel on a level not seen since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957. Commercial Spaceflight Arguably the biggest story in space for 2020 was the return of humans being transported to space from US soil. It wasn't just that astronauts lifted off from the US for the first time since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011, it was also that the mission didn't feature a traditional NASA spacecraft. For the first time, in any nation, a crew was sent into orbit in a spacecraft, by a launcher, from a launch pad, watched over by mission control, all of which were built, owned, and operated by a private company.